Francois Achille Longet, a French physician, born in St. Germain-en-Laye in 1811, died in Bordeaux in June, 1871. He early showed a strong taste for physiological pursuits, and from 1838 was almost entirely devoted to them. He was particularly distinguished for his numerous original investigations on the nervous system, and for his extensive and complete though somewhat polemic reviews of the statements and opinions of other writers. His conclusions, however, were in general marked by great good judgment. He made various series of experiments on the manifestations and effects of electricity in connection with the nervous system; on the excitability and irritability of the nerves; on the recurrent sensibility of the anterior roots of the spinal nerves; on the seat of the reflex act of respiration in the medulla oblongata; on the effects of the inhalation of ether on the nervous system; and on the voice and the production of musical sounds. He twice obtained the Montyon prize of physiology at the academy of sciences.

He was member of the academy of medicine, officer of the legion of honor, and consulting physician to Napoleon III. For the last ten years of his life he was professor of physiology in the faculty of medicine in Paris. Besides important contributions to the Annates medico-psychplogiques, of which he was one of the founders, and other periodicals, his works are: Recherches experimentales sur lesfonctions des nerfs des muscles du larynx (1841); Recherches experimentales sur l'irritabilite musculaire (1841); Recherches experimentales sur les/auctions d'epiglotte (1841); Anatomic etphysiolo-gie du systeme nerveux (2 vols. 8vo, 1842); Experiences relatives a l'inhalation de l'ether sulfurique sur le systeme nerveux (1849); Traite dephysiologie (2 vols. 8vo, with plates, 1850-'61; 3d ed. revised and enlarged, 1868); Nouvelles recherches relatives d l'action du sue gastrique, etc. (1855); and Mouvement circulaire de la mature dans les trois regnes (1865).